Etymograph

English

ferocity

Ferocity comes from Latin ferocitas ‘fierceness, ferocity’, and goes back to Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰweh₁r-.

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰweh₁r-reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEferus‘wild, savage, fierce’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEferox‘fierce’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEferocitas‘fierceness, ferocity’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600férocité
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1886ferocity

attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed deepest recorded ancestor

Lineage

  1. Proto-Indo-Europeanc. 4500–2500 BCE*ǵʰweh₁r-reconstructed
  2. Latinc. 75 BCE–200 CEferus‘wild, savage, fierce’
  3. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEferox‘fierce’
  4. Latin, derivedc. 75 BCE–200 CEferocitas‘fierceness, ferocity’
  5. Middle Frenchc. 1400–1600férocité
  6. Englishearliest quotation 1886ferocity

Earliest quotation: 1886, Robert Louis Stevenson: “Nearly a year later, in the month of October,…”

Linked words

through Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰweh₁r-

fiercely, fierceness, 5 more

through Latin ferus ‘wild, savage, fierce’

fierce, zebra, 8 more

Today it means

noun The condition of being ferocious.

Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.

Etymograph / Proto-Indo-European *ǵʰweh₁r- / ferocity

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